The present invention relates to a new and improved apparatus for winding, and specifically unwinding of printed products which have been previously wound in conjunction with a winding band or strap--also referred to in the art as a winding tape--in imbricated or shingled formation upon a winding core or mandrel or the like.
Generally speaking, the apparatus for the unwinding of printed products which have been previously wound up in conjunction with a winding band and/or strap in imbricated or shingled formation upon a winding core or mandrel or the like, comprises a support arrangement or support means for the product package, a rotatably mounted and drivable band spool or spool member for winding up the winding band or strap which has been unwound from the product package, and a continuous conveyor or conveyor means for the outfeed or delivery of the unwound imbricated formation of printed products.
Such type of apparatus is known, for instance, from the European Published Patent Application No. 0,142,745, and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,541, granted July 1, 1986, entitled "APPARATUS FOR UNWINDING PRINTED PRODUCTS WOUND UP IN AN IMBRICATED FORMATION". With this heretofore known construction of apparatus, the winding core is rotatably mounted at a stationary support or bearing arrangement. For the outfeed of the unwound imbricated formation of printed products, a continuous conveyor can be positionally adjusted in relation to the product package or the winding core, as the case may be. With this prior art arrangement it is necessary to construct the continuous conveyor such that the printed products are positively outfed or delivered throughout the different positions which can be assumed by the continuous conveyor during the course of the product unwinding operation. To fulfill this requirement there is needed a complicated construction of the continuous conveyor. Equally, with this state-of-the-art apparatus, the product package must be slipped onto a support or bearing shaft or the like before it can be placed upon the support or bearing arrangement. This again requires the utilization of appropriate equipment.
Continuing, in German Patent No. 2,207,556, published Oct. 24, 1974, there is disclosed a further construction of apparatus for the unwinding of printed products are clamped in imbricated or shingled formation between two winding bands, specifically a pair of winding bands, and then wound up upon a drum. During unwinding of the printed products stored upon the drum the pair of winding bands are payed-off the drum in conjunction with the printed products. Both of the winding bands divergingly travel, after having emptied their product contents at an outfeed conveyor, to individual separate storage rolls. The imbricated product formation is outfed by the pair of winding bands in approximately horizontal direction from the product package. Moreover, the entire drum is elevationally positionally shifted in order to compensate for the rather thick wound-up layers or coils of the printed products. This unwinding apparatus is not suitable for unwinding printed products which have been wound in imbricated formation upon a winding core with only one winding band, because such printed products are outfed in so-to-speak overfeed or from above in relation to the product package and the winding core, as the case may be. Equally, with this prior art apparatus it is necessary that the drum together with the product package which has been wound up upon the drum hub, and which product package can possess an appreciable weight, be upwardly moved by virtue of the decreasing thickness or size of the product package in order that the wind-off site or point for the printed products be located at the same elevational position.